Occasionally when cycling in France you will come across a road sign that says ‘Chausée déformée’, followed by a section of road that is perhaps a bit on the bumpy side or contains the occasional pothole. I’ve always found this sign hilarious. If the standards used in France were adopted in Britain, there would be many roads where this sign would have to be erected every few hundred metres over their entire length. The old saying goes: ‘You can tell how an economy is doing by the state of its roads.’ By that reckoning, parts of Britain are in serious trouble...